Have you ever been deeply brokenhearted and felt you couldn’t go on? Have you ever felt that life is just one series of miserable occurrences after the next? Have you ever had an existential crisis, a moment in your life where you wonder “what is the point of it all?”
Such experiences are not uncommon. Job in our first reading this weekend is at a real low point in his life. He says to himself, “Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Isn’t life just endless servitude where you are just waiting to die? Kind of dark. But also reassuring that scripture is honest about the miseries we face. That sometimes you begin to question, what is up with all this suffering?
And this is an important question. There is a whole branch of philosophy called existentialism which grapples and wrestles with the universal human experience of figuring out the meaning of life and enduring suffering with purpose. The existential philosopher Albert Camus claimed, that “Deciding whether or not life is worth living” is “the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that.”
Now, Albert Camus was pretty critical of religion most of the time, but he’s certainly on to something. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen launched a radio show back in the 1950s and television show, called “Life is Worth Living.” And that television show was on primetime, on a major network, and had the highest rating of any show at the time.
Now Job really grappled with this question. And Job really knew what it meant to suffer. Job, initially, was a wealthy man with a large family, significant livestock, and many servants. In a series of calamities, he lost his possessions and wealth, including his livestock and property. Tragically, Job suffered the loss of his ten children when a great wind collapsed the house where they were gathered, leading to their deaths. Job experienced a debilitating illness: painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. His physical suffering was intense. Job faced additional hardships in the form of isolation and rejection. His friends, who came to comfort him, suggested that his suffering was his own fault.
But Job was a man of deep faith, and ultimately concludes that the man of faith is called to trust in God always: “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” And that life is worth living even when we suffer tragedy.
The book of Job, read the whole thing some time. It’ll help you grow in spiritual maturity.
“Life is worth living”. How can we say that?
When Christians say that life is worth living, this belief is grounded in scripture, theology and reason.
Scripture in its earliest pages reveals that humans are created in the image of God. God is good, therefore human life is good. Human life is good and sacred, therefore every human life has dignity and worth, and our dignity is not dependent on external factors such as achievements, status, wealth or abilities but is intrinsic to being a human being.
Life is worth living because every life has a purpose. Often people begin to question whether their life is worth living because they see no purpose to their life. This is why deep mature faith in God is so important to the human experience, for living a life aligned with divine principles and guided by faith helps us experience the purpose for which we were made—to know our purpose even as we suffer. With faith, Our challenges and sufferings, even our setbacks and sins, become opportunities for growth and transformation, the cultivation of virtue and the sanctification of our eternal souls.
Life is worth living because the time we have been given in this earthly life is for the purpose of preparing for eternity.
Now, again, most of us, at some point, have moments, even perhaps long periods of life, where we feel like Job in our first reading. And so it is important to fight these negative feelings with Truth. We must remind ourselves of our worth as human beings. We have a responsibility to preserve and nurture life and that includes our own physical, mental, and spiritual health. We need to eat right and avoid activities and substances that bring us depression and meaninglessness, and strengthen our faith when it is wavering.
I can’t remember who said it, but it’s great advice. Whenever you are feeling down or lost, look at the crucifix. Remind yourself, that the one nailed to the cross embraced that cross for you out of love for you. No matter your sins, no matter your past. He loves you. Your life is worth living because God loves you. He loved you into existence, knowing what your sins would be, knowing the suffering you would have to endure. And he gives you the knowledge that he loves you so that you do not despair.
In today’s Gospel, people came from throughout capernaum to be healed by Jesus—to be delivered from their earthly miseries and bodily pains and their demons. And the Lord certainly, certainly wishes to bring us wholeness and peace and healing, just like he did for the citizens of Capernaum. But you must go to him with the desire to be healed. When you come to mass, have you identified what needs healing? Have you identified the broken parts of your life that need wholeness? The stagnate part of your lives that could use transformation.
To those who say, I don’t need to come to church, I can approach God at own home. How’s that working out ? We don’t have a lot of Gospel stories of people being healed just by sitting at home. Even with the case of Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus is welcomed and brought into the home, by the sons of Zebedee and Alphaeus, and the healing comes through the actual encounter.
We need to come to mass, sometimes more than just once a week, when we are downtrodden. You know every week we have holy hour, when the Eucharist is placed in the monstrance for you to come and kneel and pray. Every first Friday as well. Jesus waits for us to visit him in the monstrances and tabernacles and confessionals.
We can be pretty foolish about the spiritual life, sometimes, thinking that our problems will just go away in time, without any real effort on our part, without putting in the work, and bringing our sufferings to Jesus with persistence. And the unwillingness to do the work, the unwillingness to confess our sins is the cause of immeasurable misery. Faith involves doing the work, approaching Jesus, laying our life bare to him for healing.
Job suffered, but in the end, he kept the faith. And doing so resulted in a powerful experience of God. Keeping the faith, in the end, will result in the eternal experience of God’s goodness in heaven. So when our crosses grow heavy, we must go to Jesus, and learn to rely on Jesus to be our strength. If you haven’t received the strength you need, you need to keep going back to Jesus.
May the Lord sustain us in our works and in our sufferings, reveal to us our purpose, and deliver us from our sins for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
